While India Copies, the Chinese Invent…the Traditional Way

/ By / Innovation, Traditional Knowledge

As we celebrate the efficacy of section 3(d) and our stringent patent opposition mechanism that inter alia, led to the invalidation of a key patent underlying Tamiflu, the Chinese have taken an alternative route, albeit a healthier one. Don’t get me wrong; the term “healthy” does not reflect a comparative value judgment of any sort..it simply highlights the fact that, as with most things allopathic, Tamiflu comes with its fair share of side effects. A report states as below: “Jin […]

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Lok Sabha passes the Trade Mark (Amendment) Bill, 2009 – finally!

/ By / Trademark

The ET reports that the Lok Sabha, which is the lower house of Parliament, has finally passed the Trademark (Amendment) Bill 2009, on Friday the 18th of December, 2009. Keeping in line with the parliamentary practice of the last few years, the Lok Sabha passed this bill along with 5 other bills in a period of 5 minutes without any debate or discussion, after which it was adjourned sine die. Image from here. The bill will now be sent to

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SpicyIP Tidbit: The Obama Administration does a U-Turn – Supports the WIPO Treaty for the Blind

/ By / Others

In a surprising turn of events it has been reported, by Wired.com, that the Obama administration has whole heartedly supported the WIPO Treaty for Sharing Accessible Formats of Copyrighted Works for Persons Who are Blind or Have other Reading Disabilities. (image from here) In a Statement before the WIPO SCCR the U.S. noted that “some in the international copyright community believe that any international consensus on substantive limitations and exceptions to copyright law would weaken international copyright law. The United

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Copyright Board: Need for Speed

/ By / Copyright

According to a news report, the Copyright Board has closed hearings for this year and the next date is scheduled sometime next March. For the last 18 months, the Copyright Board has been dealing with the issue of royalties to be fixed for the radio industry, and no decision has been arrived at as yet. Apparently, in the last two day session, only 3 witnesses from the radio industry were cross examined leaving the industry dismayed at the pace with

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Liberalization of Foreign Technology Agreement Policy

/ By / Uncategorized

There is good news for the Indian technological industry. The Government of India yesterday (17th Dec), issued a Press Release stating that it has reviewed its foreign technology agreement policy to no longer require government approval, with immediate effect. The prior policy freely allowed payments and remittances up to a lumpsum fee of $2million and royalty payments of 5% on domestic sales and 8% on exports. Payments above this required regulatory approval.
 The new policy removes any such restrictions on

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See-sawing at Copenhagen

/ By / Uncategorized

With hardly any time remaining for discussions at ‘Hopenhagen’, the position of IP in the treaty text continues to remain ambiguous, see-sawing between a number of IP references being mentioned (1st draft), to IP not being mentioned explicitly at all (2nd draft) , and back to IP being mentioned again in the 3rd draft text (provided by IP-Watch here) on the development and transfer of technology at the 7-18th December United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) being held at Copenhagen.

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SpicyIP Tidbit: IP matters lead the way in India’s first e-court

/ By / Uncategorized

Earlier this week, a small corner of the Delhi High Court became India’s first e-court, embracing technology in a way it is hoped will encourage the judiciary to spread the bug! What is of particular interest to the SpicyIP team and its readers is that the pilot e-court project was ushered in in the courtroom of Justice S Ravindra Bhat, a judge who has been at the forefront of several key IP decisions in the recent past. Cries for “speedier”

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SpicyIP Guest Post: Copyright, Arbitration and a Feted Film

/ By / Copyright

We have for you a guest post on the Tandav Films vs Four Frames case, decided by Justice Murlidhar of the Delhi High Court recently. The case, a complex mesh of copyright and arbitration law involving a film that has crept into my all-time favourites list – Khosla ka Ghosla, has been carefully dissected and analysed by our guest post-er, Anirudh Wadhwa. Anirudh is a lawyer with a London based law firm and is an editor of Justice Bachawat’s Law

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Protecting Basmati not Everybody’s Cup of Tea? NGO objects to APEDA’s Requirements

/ By / Uncategorized

TENDER NOTICE Some time back, the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which is an autonomous organization under the Ministry of Commerce, had issued a tender inviting offers from the law firms specialized in registration and protection of Intellectual Property. The selected firm was to be engaged for an initial period of two years for the purposes of : (a) Advising APEDA on the protection of Basmati vis-à-vis the entire spectrum of Intellectual Property laws and assist

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SpicyIP Tidbit: Madras High Court embarrassed over failure to reimburse ‘Scientific Advisors’ appointed under S. 115 of the Patents Act

/ By / Patent

In the recent case of Vittal Mallya Scientific Research Foundation v. Indfrag Ltd. the Madras High Court was highly embarrased when the Plaintiff’s counsel bickered with the scientific advisor’s (IIT Madras) over the question of payment towards the cost of carrying out certain tests that were so required to be carried out as per the Court’s directions. The decision of the Madras High Court can be accessed at the website of India Kanoon over here. The present suit had been

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